Johnny Tremain recap

Johnny Tremain is a proud, talented apprentice silversmith in colonial Boston until a rival's sabotage contributes to an accident that badly burns his right hand. Unable to continue his trade, he finds work delivering the Boston Observer and becomes close to Rab Silsbee, a young printer involved with the Patriot movement. Johnny's errands bring him into the resistance to British rule, including the Boston Tea Party, while his old ties to Cilla and Isannah Lapham change as they enter the household of the Loyalist Lytes. As British troops occupy Boston, Johnny learns discipline, empathy, and a purpose larger than his lost craft. Rab joins the colonial militia and is mortally wounded at Lexington when fighting begins. He leaves Johnny his musket. Doctor Warren then offers hope that surgery can restore enough movement to Johnny's hand for him to use it. Johnny chooses the operation and commits himself to the revolutionary cause.

Fourteen-year-old Johnny Tremain is the most skillful apprentice in Ephraim Lapham's Boston silver shop, and he expects eventually to marry Cilla Lapham and take over the business. His talent has made him overbearing toward the other apprentices, especially the resentful Dove. When merchant John Hancock orders a difficult silver basin, Johnny tries to finish it on a Sunday, despite Mr. Lapham's objections. Dove secretly gives him a cracked crucible. Molten silver spills over Johnny's right hand, and careless treatment leaves his thumb fused to his palm. The injury makes fine silverwork impossible. Johnny's pride collapses as he realizes that the future he had assumed was his has disappeared.

Johnny searches for work but is rejected repeatedly because of his hand and his defensive temper. He turns to a family story his mother told him and approaches the rich merchant Jonathan Lyte with an old silver cup that may prove a connection between them. Lyte instead has him arrested for stealing the cup. Cilla's evidence about Johnny's possession of it undermines the charge, and the case is dismissed, but Johnny gains neither a family nor financial help. During this crisis he meets Rab Silsbee at the Boston Observer. Rab offers food and calm companionship, then helps Johnny secure work delivering the newspaper. Johnny begins learning to ride the difficult horse Goblin and discovers a life beyond the Lapham shop.

Working from the Observer office, Johnny becomes part of the circle resisting British taxes and authority. He delivers papers and confidential messages for Samuel Adams and other Patriot leaders, while Rab's restraint gives him a model of courage different from his former boastfulness. Johnny also sees Cilla regularly and learns that she works for the Lytes, where Lavinia Lyte has taken a strong interest in beautiful young Isannah. Political tension rises over taxed tea held in Boston Harbor. Johnny helps carry messages as the Patriots organize, then joins the disguised men who board the ships and destroy the tea rather than allow it to be landed. The action binds him more closely to the cause and brings the possibility of British retaliation nearer.

Britain punishes Boston by closing its port, and troops fill the town. Johnny continues as a messenger while the resistance prepares for a wider conflict. His skill at moving among different households lets him observe both Patriot plans and Loyalist fears. The Lytes intend to leave for the safety of their country property, and their treatment of Cilla and Isannah deepens the distance between the sisters. Johnny's concern for Cilla becomes less possessive and more respectful. Rab, meanwhile, is determined to obtain a good musket and join the armed companies outside Boston. The boys' friendship remains strong, but their paths begin to separate as Rab prepares for open fighting and Johnny's work keeps him inside the city.

With Boston under military occupation, Johnny gains information by cultivating casual contacts with British soldiers. A private called Pumpkin wants to desert and return to farm life. Johnny exchanges civilian clothing for Pumpkin's musket, hoping to secure the weapon Rab needs. Pumpkin is caught and executed, showing Johnny the severe cost attached even to a seemingly simple scheme. Rab leaves Boston and joins the militia, taking the musket. Patriot observers then learn that British forces are preparing a secret march toward Lexington and Concord to seize colonial supplies and arrest leaders. Johnny helps pass the warning. Riders, including Paul Revere, carry the alarm into the countryside while Johnny remains in a city suddenly cut off by the troop movement.

The British expedition meets armed colonists at Lexington, and the first fighting of the Revolution spreads along the road to Concord. Johnny works through the confusion in Boston, carrying news and trying to discover what has happened to Rab. He finally reaches Lexington and finds his friend mortally wounded. Rab dies after giving Johnny the musket. The death strips away any romantic view Johnny held of battle, but it does not weaken his commitment to the cause Rab served. Doctor Joseph Warren examines Johnny's hand and believes surgery can separate the damaged thumb enough for Johnny to use the gun. Johnny chooses to undergo the operation. Having lost both his old trade and his closest friend, he ends with a new, sober sense of purpose as the colonies enter open rebellion.

After British troops march toward Lexington and Concord, Johnny moves through the occupied city carrying information for the Patriots. He learns that Rab has been gravely wounded in the fighting at Lexington and reaches him before he dies. Rab gives Johnny the musket he had wanted for himself. The loss ends Johnny's youthful idea of war as an exciting public cause and makes its cost personal. Doctor Warren examines Johnny's burned hand and explains that an operation can probably free the fused thumb, allowing Johnny to fire Rab's musket and do more useful work. Johnny accepts the pain and risk of surgery. Boston remains under British control while armed rebellion spreads outside it, but Johnny is no longer defined by the silversmith's career his injury took from him. He ends the novel committed to the Patriot cause, carrying Rab's memory and ready to take an active part in the struggle ahead.